The Timid Tiger

Zhu Huiqing stayed true to his word and came back to rouse Meng Mei roughly two hours later. She hadn’t managed to get any more sleep but she’d been suspended in that half wakeful state of exhaustion since finishing her breakfast.

She rubbed the tiredness for her eyes and joined Zhu Huiqing outside when he called for her.

“We’ll start with the inner parts of the grounds before moving outwards.” He said as they started walking.

It was obvious that he’d spent the last few hours finding out where everything was himself because he suddenly knew every square inch of the camping grounds.

In the dead center of the grounds was the dining tent. It served as the central local to base everything else off of.

Nearest to the dining tent was the tents that held all of the food preparation stations. One tent was even serving as their temporary pantry.

Surrounding those tents were two large tents that served as the reception hall and the lounge area. When they passed the latter tent Meng Mei could hear Meng Guoyao’s loud laugh, and of course it was accompanied by Zhong Shoushan's slightly quieter one.

Then across the camping grounds from the Meng family’s tents were the Zhong family’s tents. They were in a similar set up with Zhong Shoushan and his wife sharing a tent while each of the children got their own tent.

Filling in any empty spaces were tents for the guards that had come with the two families. Zhu Huiqing even showed Meng Mei where he was staying for the time being.

The last stop on their tour was the training grounds. It was a large cleared out area where everyone could practice their sword skills when there was downtime. At the moment there was only a single woman practicing her skills. She was too far away for Meng Mei to make out any distinct features.

“That would be Zhong Qingling.” Zhu Huiqing told her as she squinted at the woman. Almost as if she could hear them, the woman, Zhong Qingling, stopped swinging her sword to look in their direction.

“Guard Zhu?! Is that you?” She called out, waving in their direction.

Zhu Huiqing sighed as Meng mei started scrutinizing him.

“Stay here. I’ll be back in a moment.” He instructed her as he went to meet Zhong Qingling in the middle of the clearing.

‘Seriously, how does everyone know him?’ Meng Mei wondered as she watched the two of them interact. She couldn’t hear anything they were saying due to how far away they were so she just settled in to wait.

Barely a moment later, a noise caught her attention. It sounded like…laughter? More specifically, a kid's laughter.

Meng Mei glanced over at Zhu Huiqing to make sure he was still distracted before sneaking off to investigate the noise.

The laughter turned out to be coming from a group of boys. They were standing on the outskirts of the camping grounds and they’d gathered up into a tight line. They were looking down the slight slope of the hill they were standing on and laughing loudly.

Meng Mei didn’t know what was going on until one of the boys moved to to side slightly and she could see past him.

They were laughing at…another boy?

Before Meng Mei even realized what she was doing she was running in their direction. She darted around the line of boys and came to a stop in between the boys and the one cowering a few steps down the hill.

“Hey! What do you think you’re doing!?” She demanded, holding her arms out so the boy behind her was completely shielded.

The three boys in front of her stopped their snickering in order to stare at her.

Even with just a glance she could tell they were all young masters from wealthy families. They were dressed in good quality robes and silver guans gleamed in their hair.

“Who are you?” The boy in the middle asked. He was the tallest one and he was holding a wooden bucket in his hands. Meng Mei assumed he was the leader of this little posse,

“I don’t have to tell you that. I asked what you think you’re doing?” Meng Mei snapped. The leader boy’s face clouded from judgemental curiosity to fury.

“You dare speak to me like that? Do you even know who I am?” He growled, taking a step forward. Meng Mei refused to cower.

She wasn’t going to fold just because this kid thought he was so high and mighty. He was just some schoolyard bully.

“Why should I care who you are?” Meng Mei asked, lifting her head defiantly. The two cronies behind the leader boy shared a shocked glance. “The only thing I’m concerned about is the fact that you’re picking on the boy behind me.”

“You dare defend that bastard to my face?” The leader boy took another step forward. He was nearly in her face now.

Meng Mei stared into his eyes unwaveringly. She didn’t even dignify that statement with a response. Of course she was defending the kid. What else did it look like?

“You have two seconds to move.” The leader boy scowled.

“Or what?” Meng Mei challenged.

“Or you’re next.”

“Hey we can’t just—” One of the cronies tried to speak up, suddenly looking panicked.

“Wait what if she’s—” The other one tried to say at the same time.

The leader boy whirled back around on them, his face as dark as a storm cloud. They both wisely shut their mouths in the face of such ire.

“I don’t care.” He snapped at them before turning back towards Meng Mei. “All that matters is that she’s in my way.”

Meng Mei scowled. This kid sure thought highly of himself.

“And I’ll continue being in your way as long as you’re bothering this boy.” She declared stubbornly. The leader boy made another growling sound and the next time she knew, she’d been splashed with cold water.

Her jaw dropped as she looked down at her now soaked clothing. Water dripped down her face as she looked down in disbelief. It took her way too long to realize that the leader boy had used the bucket in his hands to splash her with the water.

Slowly she wiped her face.

When she looked back up at the boy he looked far too smug for such a petty stunt.

Suddenly Meng Mei felt herself grow furious. How dare this little punk splash her with water. Forget knowing who he was. Did he know who she was?

“Now. Move. Unless you want a repeat.” He demanded with that smug smile.

The next thing Meng Mei knew, she’d launched herself at the boy in anger. Her hands found grip in his hair as she kneed him in the stomach. The two cronies let out shouts of surprise as their leader choked. Hurriedly he pushed Meng Mei off and took a step back. He held his stomach as he looked at her, fury clouding his face.

“You little—”

He didn’t finish before he launched himself at Meng Mei. She was ready for him though and met his swinging fists with hits of her own.

Everyone around them started yelling as they fell to the ground. The boy landed solid hits to Meng Mei’s stomach and arms and Meng Mei returned the favor by kicking him in the shins and punching him in the jaw.

In their struggle they didn’t notice that the shouting was attracting attention. The shouts got louder as more people came to see what was going on.

Suddenly, just as Meng mei was aiming to break the little punk's nose, hands were grabbing the kids and pulling them away from each other. Anger clouded her vision as she struggled against the grip of her captures, determined to get her hands back on the kid.

In order to stop her a third person had to retrain her by lifting her off the ground. The two original guards kept secure holds on her arms so she couldn’t start swinging on them. A few feet away the boy was in a similar situation.

She felt a sadistic thrill at the sight of blood dripping down his face. If only she could—

“What in heaven’s name is going on here?!” A very familiar voice demanded. Suddenly Meng Mei was brought back to the present as Madam Meirong made her appearance on the scene. Meng Guoyao, Zhong Shoushan, and a woman who must be Zhong Jiayi all followed closely behind her.

“Meng Xiāng! What is the meaning of this?” Madam Meirong asked as she and Meng Guoyao hurried over to inspect her.

“He—”

“Zhong Changming! What do you think you’re doing?” Zhong Shoushan demanded as he got in the face of the leader boy.

Meng Mei’s stomach dropped.

Zhong Changming?

She caught another glimpse of the leader boy through the crowd and he looked just as shocked as she felt.

“You’re kidding me.”

That leader boy was actually Zhong Changming!?